The Maratha Ditch was a three-mile-long deep entrenchment constructed by the English

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

around Fort William in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

. It was built to protect the surrounding villages and forts from the Maratha

Bargi Bargis () were a light cavalry mercenary group of Maratha Confederacy's who indulged in large scale depredations in the countryside of western part of the Bengal Subah for about ten years (1741–1751) during the Maratha invasions of Bengal. Ma ...

raiders. The ditch marked the outer limits of

city in the nineteenth century.

History

During the

Maratha invasions of Bengal The Maratha invasions of Bengal (1742–1751), were the a series of raids by the Maratha Army, Maratha forces in the Bengal Subah (Bengal, Bihar, parts of modern Odisha, Orissa), after the successful campaign in the Carnatic region at the Siege ...

, the mercenaries employed by the Marathas of Nagpur called

s devastated the countryside thoroughly, causing huge economic losses for

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

. In 1742, the president of the

petitioned the ''nawab''

Alivardi Khan Alivardi Khan (1671 – 9 April 1756) was the fourth Nawab of Bengal from 1740 to 1756. He toppled the Nasiri dynasty of Nawabs by defeating Sarfaraz Khan in 1740 and assumed power himself. During much of his reign Alivardi encountered frequen ...

to create an entrenchment intended to circle the landward sides of

. This request was immediately granted by

, and in 1743 the Indians and Europeans co-operated to excavate a 3-mile-long ditch north of Fort William, which came to be known as the Maratha Ditch. However, the threat of Maratha invasions ceased before the ditch could be completed and it was left unfinished. Subsequently, it marked the outer limits of Calcutta during the 19th century. After that, it became more or less useless as a defensive work, since the deteriorated ditch could only make the movement of troops and artillery significantly difficult. The ditch was partly paved in 1799 for the Circular Road of Calcutta and was completely filled in 1893 for construction of the Harrison Road. Today, a road in North

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

by the name of Maratha Ditch Lane marks where the entrenchment once stood.

References

{{coord missing, West Bengal Bengal Subah Buildings and structures in Kolkata Archaeological sites in West Bengal